Raising money is hard. It’s hard if you have an innovative tech startup and it’s hard if you have a non-profit organization. Whether you’re appealing to prospective donors, pitching venture capital investors, or running a crowdfunding campaign, convincing someone (or, more often, lots of people) to open her checkbook and back your work is a tough slog with lots of rejection on the road to success.

When fundraising is so difficult to begin with, it troubles me that so many people make it even harder than it needs to be by focusing on the wrong targets for their appeals.